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Speaker 1: You're listening to Waiting on reparations production of her radio. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: check it. Yeah, Hey y'all, I'm really trying to cope.

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Speaker 1: So I'm screaming we should eat the rich people kept down,

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Speaker 1: but I guess they gotta keep them pinched. I think

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Speaker 1: we should switch. Trying to do the ship a better

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Speaker 1: way got you looking up and walking over with your

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Speaker 1: brother lay. That's where he'd be at. You ain't trying

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Speaker 1: to see that you got your money, but all of

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Speaker 1: your currency is Fiat B act with me. I ain't

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Speaker 1: bothered it at all. It's some most civilizations were just

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Speaker 1: wobbling fall a matter of fact. I'm doing it for

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Speaker 1: a pad in the back to do it because it's

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Speaker 1: where your heart and soul is. Actually, Yet if you

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Speaker 1: do it for the camera, that's a matter of cap

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Speaker 1: It's almost like capitalism is actually whack. Who would have

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Speaker 1: thunk it? They brought the cool age and Nick's drunk it.

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Speaker 1: You're lucky I ain't get on this tape. I would

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Speaker 1: have dunked it. It's how I was supposed to go decide.

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Speaker 1: They wanted to function, but they ain't gonna work because

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Speaker 1: we ain't putting enough in. Yeah, yeah, Dope Knife, Dope

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Speaker 1: Knife living with Franka, waiting waiting rep reppertion. He what's

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Speaker 1: up people, how y'all doing? My name is Dope Knife.

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Speaker 1: We are waiting on reparations? Yo, yea yeah, yeah, what's up?

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Speaker 1: What's up? What's up? Another wonderful week. I'm feeling a

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Speaker 1: bit more energized with it. You know. I just took

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Speaker 1: a little trip back home to Savannah, so seeing old

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Speaker 1: friends and fans and ship like that, it got a

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Speaker 1: got a little pep in my step. Brothers feeling good

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Speaker 1: about the ship right now, although I gotta say that

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Speaker 1: downtown Savannah y'all should probably put some masks on. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that ship is like there wasn't no pandemic and ship

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Speaker 1: like niggas is just going around like that ship is

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Speaker 1: all good. So miss Franco, what have you been up

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Speaker 1: to since I took my Savannah sabbatical? So for me

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Speaker 1: this week, it's an exciting week. Um, My partner and I,

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Speaker 1: Paul Clays, who we've previously had on the show, found

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Speaker 1: a place together on We're moving in uh in a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks. So that's super exciting and scary. But

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Speaker 1: you know, UH, particularly as we approach the topic this

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Speaker 1: week of UM housing, insecurity and homelessness. Um I just

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Speaker 1: the journey we've been on as folks, you know, with

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Speaker 1: who haven't lost much employment under COVID, just you know,

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Speaker 1: decent credit scores, etcetera. The struggle for us to even

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Speaker 1: find a place in a small town or you know,

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Speaker 1: a small city of the size of Athens has been

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Speaker 1: interesting and just had a lot of light for me

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Speaker 1: personally on like how hard, yeah, how hard it is

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Speaker 1: to find a place to live. How lucky we all

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Speaker 1: are to have places to live if we do so.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that I ended up doing when

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Speaker 1: I was in Savannah for this past week was, you know,

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Speaker 1: I lived there for fifteen years. You get to know people,

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Speaker 1: you grow your social net, and you know, as sad

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Speaker 1: as it is, there's certain homeless people whose faces become

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Speaker 1: familiarity and you know, you're used to seeing them at

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Speaker 1: the same spot, and I mean, depending on your personality,

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Speaker 1: you know, sometimes those people make it a bigger impact

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Speaker 1: on you than others do. But they stay with you

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Speaker 1: and they stay on your mind. And I moved out

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Speaker 1: of Savannah right before COVID hit, so there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of people that I would see around that I

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Speaker 1: was just you know that I had continued to think

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Speaker 1: about and just wonder how they were managing. Uh. Now,

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Speaker 1: since COVID hit, Savannah has always had a you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it can be described as issue,

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Speaker 1: but I think if one person is homeless as an issue.

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Speaker 1: So I'll say Savannah has always had an issue with

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Speaker 1: homelessness since I've lived there, and I just didn't imagine that, UM,

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Speaker 1: COVID or the economic downturn helped that situation at all.

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Speaker 1: So the Department of Housing and Urban Development is responsible

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Speaker 1: for the annual almost assessed the reports and to OUs

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Speaker 1: and fourteen UM they counted about a hundred They counted

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Speaker 1: about one point five million homeless people. Two eighteen, they

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Speaker 1: reported approximately point one seven percent of the population, or

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Speaker 1: about five thousand people in the United States, are homeless

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Speaker 1: on a given night. Several major cities, including New York

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Speaker 1: and Los Angeles, have seen that skyrock out over the

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Speaker 1: last three years to an almost increase. I think if

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Speaker 1: you bounced the fact that we have millions of unoccupied

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Speaker 1: homes all across UM the United States as those wrapping

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Speaker 1: about a little bit last week, UM, I definitely get

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Speaker 1: behind the arguments of the The issue is not um

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Speaker 1: like needing more housing or meeting you know, so these

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Speaker 1: solutions and problems that perhaps capitals when we have all

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Speaker 1: these houses that no one's living in, all these people

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Speaker 1: that have nowhere to live because they can't afford it,

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Speaker 1: and um something think about every day is I like

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Speaker 1: walk past the home of shelter right aund the corner

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Speaker 1: from our house and think that, like a block up

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Speaker 1: there's a luxury student high rise apartment complex that's probably

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Speaker 1: a like capacity and people they used to be living

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Speaker 1: in until they find enough tenants to like to rent

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Speaker 1: those units at the market rates. But no um even

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Speaker 1: to like get even to get like landlords, you know,

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Speaker 1: like we have a program in Athens where like we'll

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Speaker 1: pay people's rent for them if they're trying to get

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Speaker 1: like permanent supportive housing, like the Housing Community Development Department

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Speaker 1: will literally pay for people, will give people vouchers for rent,

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Speaker 1: and landlords won't accept them because they are scared of

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Speaker 1: the risks of housing formally unhoused people on their in

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Speaker 1: their properties. And it's just such a such a closer

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Speaker 1: to think about. Really, homelessness in this country is pretty

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Speaker 1: much been a national issue since like the seventeen hundreds

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Speaker 1: and ships and across that time, it's always been blunders

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Speaker 1: and capitalism and the strains that they put on the

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Speaker 1: economy that always add to the growing rate. And this

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Speaker 1: is I mean, how far you want to take it back?

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Speaker 1: You know, we can go back to the Great Depression,

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Speaker 1: or you can go all the way to the financial

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Speaker 1: collapse back and oh eight, you know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: and everything in between and everything that happened after and

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Speaker 1: everything's going to happen in the future. So that's what

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Speaker 1: we're getting into. And today's episode, we're gonna dive into

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Speaker 1: the problem homelessness and water causes, talk about santantial solutions,

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Speaker 1: but we're currently being done now and how this issue

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Speaker 1: has been dealt with in the space of hip hop

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Speaker 1: but John and stereotypically gets highlighted for its excess and

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Speaker 1: analyzing two songs uh Mr woodnow by the rest of

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Speaker 1: development as well as what did all the cost by

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Speaker 1: kind of Clamar also be talking with musician and speakers

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Speaker 1: Zulu Jones of bands Zul the Profit about his experience

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Speaker 1: with being homeless and what that experience is like for

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Speaker 1: people living in We'll be back with all of that

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Speaker 1: after the jump. With all the political discourse over varying

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Speaker 1: ideologies and policies, and you know, political promises made to

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Speaker 1: strengthen America's middle class. We all know that poor people,

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Speaker 1: more often than not are left out of the equation.

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Speaker 1: Least among those who are thought about is America's homeless

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Speaker 1: populations is perhaps the most voiceless constituency in the country.

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Speaker 1: Journalists and social documentary photographer Jacob ries Um did some

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Speaker 1: documentation of the New York flung to with his book

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Speaker 1: How the Other Half Lives Just, which raised public awareness

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Speaker 1: of subpar living conditions, causing some changes in the building

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Speaker 1: codes around that time. There's layers to homelessness. There's the

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Speaker 1: homelessness that you see in the street on the daily,

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Speaker 1: but then there's a hidden homelessness of housing procarity, families

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Speaker 1: staying with relatives, and the way that strains the social

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Speaker 1: fabric of our communities or digs at our mental health

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Speaker 1: and diminishes productivity, sleeping on couches, renting extended stay hotel rooms,

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Speaker 1: as well as family months behind and rent whom these

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Speaker 1: possibilities loom right around the corner. For I mean, the

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Speaker 1: problem with our housing market is that it's driven it's

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Speaker 1: driven by the needs of the wealthy, or not the

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Speaker 1: needs of the wealthy. The desires are the wealthy and

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Speaker 1: not the needs of our communities. And so um, even

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Speaker 1: in athletes, we're seeing we're seeing a lot of like

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Speaker 1: what I would call like compression in the housing markets,

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Speaker 1: such that there's not even housing for middle class people

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Speaker 1: being built. Like, if you make between um, let's say

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Speaker 1: fifty and a hundred thousand dollars a year, maybe you've

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Speaker 1: got some kids, um, Like, there's not even housing being

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Speaker 1: built for you. The housing the housing that's being built

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Speaker 1: is for is marketed towards students who are you know,

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Speaker 1: from like the wealthy Atlanta suburbs whose parents are paying

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Speaker 1: rents for them. They've got affinity pools on the roof

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Speaker 1: and gyms and like all this fancy study spaces and

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Speaker 1: pool rooms, etcetera. UM, or you know, for university professors

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Speaker 1: and the like the managerial class of folks that can

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Speaker 1: afford you know, four hundred five hundred thousand dollar UM

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Speaker 1: mortgage for a house. UM. And so what we're seeing

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Speaker 1: is um, middle class people are moving into formerly working

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Speaker 1: class neighborhoods because that's the only place they can find

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Speaker 1: housing within their income levels. It's causing um, single family

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Speaker 1: homes in neighborhoods like where Me and macliff Um that

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Speaker 1: typically were very blue collar neighborhoods, um, those are now

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Speaker 1: being marketed towards people, you know, professional managerial class of

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Speaker 1: you know these like wealthier, wider uh yeppier kind of people.

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Speaker 1: As a result, so like people are getting forced out,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily because it's like hip and cool to live

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Speaker 1: in these neighborhoods, because middle class people don't even have

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Speaker 1: a choice either, And so it has a cascading effect

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Speaker 1: where then working class people who have lived in these communities,

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Speaker 1: like generationally oftentimes families grew up here and their grandparents

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Speaker 1: and for many many generations have lived in places like

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Speaker 1: East athens Um are being are being displaced. They call

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Speaker 1: the like the the Oglethorpe Clark County line, like the

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Speaker 1: trail of Tiers, as black people are getting pushed out

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Speaker 1: into these more more rural areas where they don't have

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Speaker 1: access to public transportation, the school systems are worse. Um

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Speaker 1: they have to feel they have to fear from white

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Speaker 1: supremacst violence and violence from the police. When plice get

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Speaker 1: fired from place like Athens for I don't know, running

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Speaker 1: someone over with a cop car um, they get fired

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Speaker 1: and they get hired in the next county over the

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Speaker 1: next day, and that's where low income and black folks

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Speaker 1: are being forced to go live. We're also seeing um

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Speaker 1: UH recently in in Athens Um a lot of issues

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Speaker 1: with the mobile home communities. A lot of these trailers

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Speaker 1: are old people living in thirty four year old trailers.

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Speaker 1: And when these landlords you know, up the rent or

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Speaker 1: or tell them this. In one case when the for

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Speaker 1: Tom really the Latino community UM Tranquility neighborhood, they're just

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Speaker 1: closing down the park. And these trailers are so old

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Speaker 1: that people like that moving companies won't even move them.

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Speaker 1: So people don't even have the choice to take their

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Speaker 1: home with them. Their only option is to watch it

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Speaker 1: be destroyed because someone doesn't want to run a mobile

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Speaker 1: park anymore. And so the issues are overlapping, issues are

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Speaker 1: um compounding their cascading. By the late nineteenth century, as

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Speaker 1: urbanization expanded, many American towns and cities had significant numbers

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Speaker 1: of homeless people. Now the issue is complicated, of course,

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Speaker 1: like everything in life. But when you really break it down,

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Speaker 1: there's five major reasons why people go homeless in America.

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Speaker 1: One lack of affordable housing, two unemployment, Three poverty for

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Speaker 1: mental illness and the lack of needed services. And then

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Speaker 1: five substance abuse and lack of needed services as well.

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Speaker 1: All right, now, let's dive into that just a little bit.

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Speaker 1: So One lack of affordable housing, high rent burdens, overcrowding,

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Speaker 1: and substandard housing of not only forced many people to

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Speaker 1: become homeless, but it's put a large and growing number

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Speaker 1: of people at risk of becoming homeless. Number two unemployment.

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Speaker 1: If you lose your job, you can't pay your bills.

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Speaker 1: Unemployment underemployment are huge factors in this. It's said that

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Speaker 1: in a place like Athens, the issue is not the

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Speaker 1: cost of housing. The issue is is the low wage

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Speaker 1: floor um that people are working. You know, I think

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Speaker 1: we have thirty eight percent poverty, right, but like a

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Speaker 1: three percent unappointment right between thirty five percent people in

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Speaker 1: Athens fully employed, working forty hours a week, it's still

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Speaker 1: not able to make ends meet. So then you see uh,

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Speaker 1: folks staying in relationships that are toxic and abusive because

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Speaker 1: they can't afford to live on their own. UM. You see,

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Speaker 1: like you know, folks like you know, the quality we're

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Speaker 1: in our late twenties, early thirties, mid thirties, like living

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Speaker 1: in roommates situations rather than the you know, the UM

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Speaker 1: classic ideal of like home ownership. UM. Because folks just

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Speaker 1: can't up for to live on their own because of

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Speaker 1: the wage thing. And so a question that often comes

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Speaker 1: to our mind, my mind, as you know, working in

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Speaker 1: local government, it's like what do you tackle first? You

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Speaker 1: tackle the housing or do you tackle the wage piece?

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Speaker 1: And for me, I think tackling the housing piece makes

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Speaker 1: more sense. I mean, I think there's a lot we

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Speaker 1: can do to uh ally ourselves with organized labor, both

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Speaker 1: in supporting the demands of workers organizing in their workplaces

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Speaker 1: um uplifting those demands in the forms of resolutions we pass.

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Speaker 1: Also thinking creatively about how we can pass local policy

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Speaker 1: to improve working conditions such that at least people have

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Speaker 1: that alleviated even if we can't raise them in the

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Speaker 1: wage because of state law of reactions. It really to me,

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Speaker 1: I mean, we we have a budget of about hundred

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Speaker 1: fifty million dollars a year, only two percent of which

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Speaker 1: we spend on housing and development for a year. I

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Speaker 1: think it brings down that my math kind of shot

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Speaker 1: like main formulas a year, Like that's bullshit, UM, thinking

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Speaker 1: about how we could instead invest more aggressively in social

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Speaker 1: housing the variety of housing types UM that are owned

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Speaker 1: by the Athens Housing Authority or you know, other nonprofities

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Speaker 1: like a land trust or Habitat for Humanity, such that

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Speaker 1: we can you know, alleviate this burden on the housing

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Speaker 1: market in the way that it's tearing at the social

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Speaker 1: fabric in our neighborhoods. UM. It feels like something that

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Speaker 1: we have the most control over and like a very

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Speaker 1: um like a like a good place to start. UM.

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Speaker 1: We might not, you know, I think that UM, like

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Speaker 1: the wage situation is something that is more people powered,

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Speaker 1: like it takes people to organize in order for us

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Speaker 1: to get behind their organized demands. But like we have

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Speaker 1: perfect control over the housing stock and building more housing,

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Speaker 1: like there's nothing stopping us from doing that, you know,

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Speaker 1: but wait around for someone to tell us to do that.

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Speaker 1: UM that we've got studies on studies that show us

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Speaker 1: it's necessary, and so I think that's somewhere like it.

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Speaker 1: As much as I like with the issue of poverty.

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Speaker 1: I think organized labor is a really important thing to

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Speaker 1: support in order to um help us ease the burden

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Speaker 1: of housing. Can commodity and so many basic public goods,

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Speaker 1: you know, just basic human needs being commodified. Um we

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Speaker 1: could also decommodify them those needs as a government, but

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Speaker 1: taking aggressive action to this invest more heavily in it.

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Speaker 1: Number three poverty. This one's kind of self explanatory. If

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Speaker 1: you don't make a living wage, how the fund you're

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Speaker 1: supposed to live. Number four mental illness. Now, with the

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Speaker 1: limited supply of publicly supported psychiatric beds, getting access to

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Speaker 1: treatment for severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

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Speaker 1: is becoming ever and ever more restricted. So as a result,

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Speaker 1: this leaves an increasing number of people who require intensive

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Speaker 1: services like this to remain unstable and experience all the

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Speaker 1: negative consequences because they have to remain with that illness

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Speaker 1: for such a long time, and one of those consequences

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Speaker 1: can end up being homelessness. And Number five substance abuse.

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Speaker 1: Thirty eight percent of homeless people were dependent on alcohol,

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Speaker 1: percent abuse drugs. Alcohol abuse is more common in older generations,

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Speaker 1: while drug abuse is more common in the homeless youth

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Speaker 1: until this issue of UM substance abuse among folks, I

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Speaker 1: think you, I mean, I think at various points in

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Speaker 1: housing precarity, if you're living with four roommates, or if

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Speaker 1: you're living in an extended state hotel, or for living

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Speaker 1: on the street umty eight percent of people surveyed UM

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Speaker 1: who were living out UM in various stays just homelessness

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Speaker 1: dependent on alcohol in twenty six abuse other drugs and

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Speaker 1: thinking about it, want to outside fuck it. I would

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Speaker 1: be drunk every day Like that makes that makes total sense.

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Speaker 1: And it's you know, studies have shown that it is

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Speaker 1: a lot easier to get off drugs, for you to

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Speaker 1: get employment that is gainful and stable, UM, for you

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Speaker 1: to access to supports you need, and you know, pull

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Speaker 1: yourself up by the bootstraps, etcetera. You know, quote unquote, UM,

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Speaker 1: if you have a roof over your head, if you

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Speaker 1: have that basic stability off somewhere to come home to

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Speaker 1: every night, place where you can take a shower, get

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Speaker 1: a good night's sleep, have some privacy, have some peace

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Speaker 1: and quiet. And so this idea of like a housing

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Speaker 1: first model of dealing with homelessness, I just giving people

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Speaker 1: permanent supportive housing UM and you know, coupling that with

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Speaker 1: wrap around services to help people get jobs, get education,

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Speaker 1: get transportation, get counseling services, get addiction treatment UM is

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Speaker 1: a lot more effective than constantly funding these overcrowded shelters

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Speaker 1: shuttling people between jails and mental facilities when they get

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Speaker 1: into scuffles on the street. I'll think it's one that

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Speaker 1: reminds me one of the things we don't really talk

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Speaker 1: about with homelessness. I think in the recent conversations around UM,

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Speaker 1: I hesitated safe police reform, but like police uh uh,

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Speaker 1: I guess like the decentralization of police who our public

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Speaker 1: safety of response can talk a lot about how often

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Speaker 1: people who are homeless and counter the police when they're panhandling,

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Speaker 1: when the publicly intoxicative and it might be having a

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Speaker 1: mental health crisis. But also the amount of crime perpetrated

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Speaker 1: against homeless people UM I think is severely underreported. I

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Speaker 1: hear reports of it all the time from folks that

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Speaker 1: work out in the community, you know, go out to

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Speaker 1: these encampments and feed folks and you know, help folks

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Speaker 1: get they need handwarmers, logs to burn on the fire,

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Speaker 1: tense sleeping bags and the amount of sexual assaults and

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Speaker 1: uh just physical assaults, um, the amount of theft that

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Speaker 1: these people um experience. And then because they are marginalized

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Speaker 1: because they might be camping on private property, because they

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Speaker 1: might be addicted to drugs or you know, have a

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Speaker 1: criminal history, they don't reach out to law enforcement for

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Speaker 1: support when they get raped or something like that because

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Speaker 1: they're living in such a like a liminal space in society.

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Speaker 1: And so when we think about dealing with issue of homelessness, like, oh,

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Speaker 1: let's diversify our you know, public safety response so you

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Speaker 1: have more compassionate first responders out like helping homeless folks,

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Speaker 1: like connecting with services. Also, let's alleviate the issue of

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Speaker 1: homelessness through a house and first model where we just

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Speaker 1: get people housing so that they aren't the victims of

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Speaker 1: crime either, so they're not getting their ship stolen or

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Speaker 1: the ship kicked out of them. You know, in my district,

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Speaker 1: you've had shootings, homeless encampments, sexual assaults, like all this

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Speaker 1: crazy stuff that people aren't reporting in the cops. That

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Speaker 1: could be alleviate if these if the spolkesport forced to

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Speaker 1: live in these ramshackle communities together, you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: based on a finiteer based on shap drug addiction, are

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Speaker 1: based on purely the fact that they're like there's only

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Speaker 1: one encampment left in town that hasn't been cleared. Ay,

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Speaker 1: so okay, we're here with band leader, songwriter, entrepreneur, and

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Speaker 1: social media influencer and you know what, just all around,

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Speaker 1: good guy, my homie, Zulu Jones of the band Zulu Profit.

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Speaker 1: How you doing, Zoo, I'm good man, I'm glad to

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Speaker 1: get in here and get to sit down and talk

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Speaker 1: to you. Man. I'm appreciating seeing all the stuff you've

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Speaker 1: been getting into, especially with this podcast. Man. What we've

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Speaker 1: been talking about today is we're talking about homelessness in

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Speaker 1: America pretty much the five major reasons that people fall

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Speaker 1: into homelessness UM, substance abuse, mental illness, UH, lack of

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Speaker 1: affordable housing, poverty, and unemployment. UM. Before that, we were,

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Speaker 1: you know, doing the digital rambling off of statistics and

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Speaker 1: facts of this of that, and it just when when

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Speaker 1: you go about doing things these ways, you have a

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Speaker 1: habit of thinking of it as numbers, and you start

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Speaker 1: to forget that each one of those numbers quote unquote

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Speaker 1: is a human life that somebody who dreamt of being

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Speaker 1: something who feared this, who wanted that, you know, and

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Speaker 1: you lose the use track of the human experience with it.

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Speaker 1: And that's why I wanted to talk to you, because, um,

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Speaker 1: just as long as I've known you, I've known you

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Speaker 1: through several you know what I mean, through through pretty

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Speaker 1: much through a glow up, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: Like I didn't know you earlier in life, but at

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Speaker 1: this phase that I've met you, I've known you when

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Speaker 1: you were homeless for multiple years, you know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: and I've watched you work your way out of it,

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Speaker 1: so I've I'm just curious, just to start off, is

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Speaker 1: could you give us some insight as to like what

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Speaker 1: it felt like when you found yourself getting into that position.

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Speaker 1: I had an active addiction for thirty years, and that

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Speaker 1: caused the failure of the relationship with the woman I

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Speaker 1: moved to Georgia with. At the end of that, I

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Speaker 1: found myself walking down Wheaton Street with my guitar and

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Speaker 1: a couple of bags of belongings down the River Street. Now,

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Speaker 1: I remember being scared because I had never been homeless

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Speaker 1: before in my life, and the prospect of living in

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Speaker 1: a city not knowing anybody not knowing where to go

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Speaker 1: or what to do, and then seeing the condition of

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Speaker 1: a lot of the other homeless people or people assumed

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Speaker 1: to be homeless in the area was pretty intimidating because, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, you mentioned mental illness and substance abuse. I

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Speaker 1: see those of the two two two largest common greatest

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Speaker 1: common denominators amongst homeless people. So you would say that

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Speaker 1: like if you were making like if you were even

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Speaker 1: ranking in those top five reasons, like if you said

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Speaker 1: those two would probably be number one in two. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: from my own anecdotal experience that I would say that

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Speaker 1: a coupling of undiagnosed mental illness, UM self medication and

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Speaker 1: if you abuse the substance over a long enough period

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Speaker 1: of time, you'll become addicted to it. So when you've

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Speaker 1: got those two things happening, and maybe somebody's operating an

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Speaker 1: alternate reality or not seeing things accurately the substance abuse

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Speaker 1: on top of that, Um, it's a bad formula. It's unsustainable.

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Speaker 1: Somebody it's going to have a hard time maintaining just

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Speaker 1: the regular routines of life, like paying bills and generating income.

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Speaker 1: So if you don't mind, and please let me know if,

404
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 1: like I'm getting, if it gets into details that you

405
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Speaker 1: don't perhaps want to share it, but like what what

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Speaker 1: were the was there was there almost was there a warning?

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Speaker 1: Or did were there? Like were there signs that you

408
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: had that were leading towards that that if you had

409
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Speaker 1: paid attention to her, if you had been in a

410
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 1: better frame of mind, you would have been able to

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Speaker 1: address to avoid you know, finally being in that situation

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Speaker 1: where you're walking down to River Street almless. Well, that's

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Speaker 1: the problem with addiction because I wasn't able to accurately

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Speaker 1: assess my life and sometimes it takes the takes drastic

415
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Speaker 1: amounts of pain, so it wouldn't have It would have

416
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Speaker 1: probably been impossible for me to quit my addiction had

417
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Speaker 1: I not become homeless. Becoming homeless and the amount of

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Speaker 1: pain that that entailed was enough motivation for me to

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Speaker 1: seek treatment in a twelve step program and then just

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Speaker 1: start putting it back together. So I've seen you. I

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Speaker 1: don't even want to say slowly work your way out

422
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Speaker 1: of it, because like if I guess during the during

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Speaker 1: the time when you were kind of working your way

424
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Speaker 1: out of it, it seemed like it was like a

425
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,120
Speaker 1: slow process. But then you know the next thing, You know,

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Speaker 1: you haven't been in that position for at least five

427
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Speaker 1: years now, longer than so So described to me, Like,

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Speaker 1: after you got that motivation to get out of that situation,

429
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: what are some of the things that you did to

430
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: get out? And even perhaps if you want to go

431
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: in further like some like can is that something that

432
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 1: could be replicated in other people? It most definitely can

433
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:21,439
Speaker 1: be replicated in other people, because the turning point was

434
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 1: a change of mind. So I got sober, moved into

435
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 1: recovery housing, and got a roommate, and that roommate situation

436
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:31,919
Speaker 1: turned out to be bad. It was a bad judge

437
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,879
Speaker 1: judgment on my part. So I found myself homeless for

438
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: a second time. But this time I didn't have an addiction,

439
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: So there was something I experienced that was a type

440
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,439
Speaker 1: of freedom that I've never experienced before. Because one of

441
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,199
Speaker 1: the things about homelessness is is that you don't have

442
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 1: to get up off the bench if you don't feel

443
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,960
Speaker 1: like it, so one of the dangers of it. A

444
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: friend of mine passed away back in November, right after

445
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:01,000
Speaker 1: my mom did, but I talked to him early on

446
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: in that homeless days and he said, man, make sure

447
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:08,119
Speaker 1: you change your socks frequently, because your feet of your transportation.

448
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 1: And he said, don't get comfortable, he said, because there's

449
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 1: enough food in every trash can to eat, and there's

450
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,880
Speaker 1: always going to be somebody willing to give you clothing.

451
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 1: So those two basic needs are met. Um. It was

452
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 1: at that time, that second, that second round of homelessness,

453
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:31,880
Speaker 1: that I decided that I was going to live indoors

454
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 1: on my own terms. And I define that as um.

455
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna live indoors unless music paid for it.

456
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:46,920
Speaker 1: So my my, my, my caloric intake was dependent on

457
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,360
Speaker 1: how much money I earned. So there was a impetus

458
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: to get up every day and take my guitar down

459
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,200
Speaker 1: the River Street and go and play until I had

460
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 1: enough money to satisfy my calorie needs until the following day.

461
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 1: So that it started to implement and discipline, because you

462
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 1: can't always predict the rain. So if you make fifty

463
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: dollars one day and you spend it all anticipate and

464
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: working the next day, then your money is going to

465
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 1: be gone. But I'm gonna say this, like I had,

466
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 1: I had some advantages that may not be available to

467
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:17,440
Speaker 1: the too everybody. I had parents that really really stressed

468
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: reading and comprehensive education, so um, a human being that

469
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 1: can read can always teach themselves. I had a lot

470
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: of people um reach out. So it wasn't it wasn't

471
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: something that I just came up out of by my

472
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: own hand. There was a lot. There were a lot

473
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: of people that saw effort and then lent some aid,

474
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 1: and you know, they might have been back porch to

475
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: sleep on on a rainy night. But it's through those

476
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: small steps, that and determination that I was able to say,

477
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,320
Speaker 1: I'm going to get out of homelessness. Now, I did

478
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 1: it the hard way. I could have easily gotten a

479
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,240
Speaker 1: job and traded my time for money, but that didn't

480
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: seem appealing to me. After having experienced the freedom of homelessness,

481
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: like going to work for somebody that I respect less

482
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,919
Speaker 1: than myself, who I don't feel is my equal intellectually, spiritually,

483
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,879
Speaker 1: or psychically, to go have to take orders from somebody

484
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:20,439
Speaker 1: in that position, it became abhorrent to me. So I

485
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 1: decided that I would either make it by my own

486
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,200
Speaker 1: hand or starved to death in the process. And giving

487
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 1: those two options, my natural instincts and my natural programming

488
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,360
Speaker 1: from the d n A sought to stay alive, and

489
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: so I was able to improvise. I mean, I used

490
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 1: to live next door to you, man, when that was

491
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 1: the first place I lived after that round the homelessness,

492
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:44,560
Speaker 1: and when it was because the kids that lived next

493
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: door to you said the yeo, man, you can get

494
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 1: the couch for fifty bucks a month. And so getting

495
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: sober was the thing that allowed me to clear my

496
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: mind up enough to execute my will power. Because willpower,

497
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: I think in my innion, is um directing your existence

498
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: and reality in the direction that you wanted to. So

499
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 1: one of two things will happen. I'll either reach my goals.

500
00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: I'll die in the process of trying to reach my goals,

501
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: in which case I didn't fail. I simply ran out

502
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 1: of time. Now that that darker period is gone, what

503
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: are you doing these days? Like you know what I'm saying.

504
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: You're like, you're I know people that don't even in town,

505
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: who don't even know Like, your name is Zulu Jones.

506
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: Motherfucker's to see you guy, zulule Profit. You know, Zulu Profit.

507
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: So I mean you're like, yeah, that dude, Now you

508
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So can you tell our listeners

509
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:41,640
Speaker 1: a little bit about what it is that you do

510
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 1: not only in Savannah, but just like your your musical

511
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: endeavors that nationwide at this point, thank you for giving

512
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 1: me a chance to talk about this. The first thing

513
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: is I've got to shout out rhet Coleman or Sane daily.

514
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: Those are my bandmates. I don't do any of this

515
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 1: by myself. So I found O'shan kicking around um at

516
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: the wormhole, and oh she found ht kicking around at

517
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:06,160
Speaker 1: the Bayou, and together we've sorry, we're getting a little local.

518
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: These are Savannah spots. We need the Savannah spots we're

519
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: talking about like all y'all know it, but the Wormhole

520
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 1: in the biou venues in Savannah that we we play

521
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 1: it often when we're in town. All right, Yeah, I'm

522
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: sitting here talking to you, and I'll forget that. This

523
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:27,760
Speaker 1: is for everybody. So, um we started on River Street,

524
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: me and Oshean with two acoustic guitars in front of us,

525
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 1: and from that wound up transferred to electric instruments and

526
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: started building a reputation and eventually, um, we wound up

527
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: touring halfway across the US into Texas. We've got the

528
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 1: Southeast and maybe not on Lockdown, but they know our

529
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 1: names when you say our names in Florida and South Carolina,

530
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Alabama, Um, and they're they're learning our names.

531
00:30:55,480 --> 00:31:00,720
Speaker 1: In the Ukraine, they're learning our names and Tokyo and

532
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 1: then learn our names and everything else according to our analytics.

533
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: Well before we get into the analytics, and just what

534
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: type of music y'all mak it, because like we're a

535
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 1: hip hop show, so you know already already we're breaking

536
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,080
Speaker 1: that code. But I'm telling y'all it's dope. But I

537
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: want I want him to tell you in his own

538
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: words what it is a zoo prophet does. Alright. First,

539
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: So for my hip hop credentials, Nelly Mail used to

540
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 1: live on the floor of my building where I grew

541
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,800
Speaker 1: up at in the Bronx straight up real deal. Yeah yeah,

542
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: So hip hop happened in my neighborhood. I was on

543
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: my back breakdancing on cardboard and eight two eighty three.

544
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 1: So mad Love to mad love to hip hop and

545
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: what it stood for in its origins and the roots

546
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 1: of it, and to all them bands like Arrested Development

547
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 1: and Public Enemy that was trying to put something positive

548
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,240
Speaker 1: into the people's head, but got destroyed by the damn

549
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: blood sucking babylah and bullshit record industry. The motherfucker's they're

550
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: doing nothing but selling souls. They're sending a little black

551
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 1: boys and black girls and the hell in prison with

552
00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: their fuel. Yeah, I'm sorry earlier conversation, and so my

553
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 1: band right now, UM we play psychedelic, funk, reggae, rock music,

554
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: and um we've all got different backgrounds Our Drummer, he's

555
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: a hard hitter that's got uh punk rock and nineties

556
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 1: grunge vibe. The other dude from Ireland, Ocean He had

557
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: a flamenco guitar background but fell in love with the

558
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: blues and also does electronic music production under the name

559
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: Ocean Man and Obama Boe and Colonial Effects. And I

560
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 1: played in the reggae band out of North Carolina for

561
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: about ten years called Hemanti reggae band out of the

562
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,880
Speaker 1: Piedmont Triad area, and through that UM got open off

563
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 1: for just about all the major reggae xts coming through

564
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: the Southeast. Bernard Spire, Eco Mouse, Yellow Man, Jimmy Cliff

565
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 1: Um and thankfully you know from the reincarnation of the

566
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 1: Zulu prophet in Savannah. We got to open up for

567
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 1: the whalers and play on their equipment. Uh In Yeah,

568
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,040
Speaker 1: my drummers sat on the whalers drums man and in

569
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: Ocean ran through that base rig. So we got to

570
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: open up, you know, to share the stage and share

571
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: equipment with people that we've been listening to all our lives.

572
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: So what you guys got coming up next? Next big

573
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: thing is going to be on March thirteenth at the

574
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: Wingman Clubhouse with on the party. We've got Chief Steak

575
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: Jack food truck gonna be there, and I've got James

576
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: Brown's grandson coming to DJ. Part of the party. That's

577
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 1: gonna be at the Wingman Clubhouse here in Savannah, Georgia.

578
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 1: That's the Wingman Motorcycle Club sixty nine Ross Road starts

579
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 1: at about eight pm. Hey, Zulu man, it was good

580
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: talking to yo. Um. Make sure that you guys go

581
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: to zoo profit dot com so you can check out

582
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 1: some of that music. What do good deeds? I'll never

583
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 1: record a fake pieces because why would I kids a

584
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 1: person at their lowest point in life. And plus I

585
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: don't need a visual of what I did, right, I

586
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,239
Speaker 1: got the experience in that ship is the feeling. Then

587
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 1: that's something you can't take from me, you know what

588
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 1: I say, take from them. That's the real human traits.

589
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 1: So to see anybody marketing they so female, feeding them homeless,

590
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,719
Speaker 1: or feeding somebody that need help to me corny as

591
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 1: fun man, I just gotta tell you that that was

592
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: the voice and thoughts of rapper Waka Flocka, addressing current

593
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:40,600
Speaker 1: social media trend of rappers, you know, helping out homeless people,

594
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,359
Speaker 1: but for the purposes of posting it on Instagram or

595
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 1: Twitter and ship like that. So there's a lot of

596
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,000
Speaker 1: rappers who have referenced experiences of homelessness in their rhymes.

597
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 1: Weekend Logic, Cordak, Black Rock, Ross, That's Rocky, Jail Actnica

598
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 1: all at one point before they hit it big um.

599
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:00,439
Speaker 1: You know, they discussed those experience as a being without

600
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: the home, without a home, Y g and Y and

601
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,440
Speaker 1: Juicy Ja talked about economic procurity almost leaving them without shelter,

602
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 1: un really be and all I needed, respectively from my searches.

603
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:17,520
Speaker 1: In my experience, it's a rare occasion that rappers use

604
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 1: the full length of a song to dedicate towards the

605
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 1: specific topic of homelessness, but um generally in an art

606
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:32,919
Speaker 1: form where poverty in the progression from poverty is such

607
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 1: a centralized theme, you do commonly hear people recollect or

608
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 1: reflect on their experiences with homelessness. The first track that

609
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 1: we have, perhaps I mean in all honesty, it's probably

610
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: the most famous rap song dealing with the topic of homelessness.

611
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the Arrested Development track Mr Wendell. This

612
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 1: song was on their really successful album three Years five

613
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,600
Speaker 1: and some two days in the Life of It was

614
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 1: certified gold. And let's check it out a little bit.

615
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 1: Don't play Mr One. That's his name. I don't one

616
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 1: ever knew his name because he's a no one. Never

617
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: thought twice about spend it on an old ball until

618
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: I had a chance to really get to know one

619
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:16,800
Speaker 1: that that I know on to give a body is

620
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,239
Speaker 1: a charity. I was a real little kid when this

621
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:22,680
Speaker 1: came out. This is almost like the perfect example of

622
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: when you know there's a there's like a song that

623
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 1: you remember from your youth that you always liked, but

624
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 1: we were probably too young to really pay attention to

625
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 1: what it was about. I didn't really put together the

626
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 1: pieces of the song until well into my teens. I

627
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: think the second that think, like the third and fourth

628
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 1: lines of the song, a really powerful two dollars means

629
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:43,840
Speaker 1: it means a snack from me, but it means a

630
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 1: big deal to you. And I think it's something that's echoed.

631
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 1: We're kind of like in the inverse on the Kennect

632
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 1: lam Our song Um, where on that song he is

633
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:54,320
Speaker 1: talking about how, oh man, this man is asking for

634
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: too much money. That about what's gonna use it for?

635
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: Whereas like for someone who might not eat her days

636
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: or has been awake for days because of the sounds

637
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: of traffic on the overpass under which they sleep, that

638
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 1: two dollars is going to enable them to go by

639
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:12,319
Speaker 1: the little like like uh um, like pack of chips

640
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 1: or whatever from the gas stasution. This this like transformative

641
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 1: in that moment um instead of like putting I appreciate

642
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:26,239
Speaker 1: the way, um, the plight of living living on the

643
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:30,319
Speaker 1: streets and sort of humanized is it in a way

644
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:31,959
Speaker 1: You don't really seeing a lot of hip hop songs,

645
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: he said, you see a lot of people like code back, etcetera.

646
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: Like I was homeless, but now it came up and

647
00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: everything's good. Rather than sort of the sitting with the

648
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,400
Speaker 1: discomfort of like, you know, this man with no clothes,

649
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 1: no money, no plate. In essence, it's kind of a

650
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:47,120
Speaker 1: don't judge a book by its cover sort of things

651
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 1: like you see these people in the street, and because

652
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,799
Speaker 1: of our social status is or because of the way

653
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: that our society is organized, you look down on people

654
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 1: like that, or you don't give them second thought. And

655
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,960
Speaker 1: even when we're doing things like reading statistics and we're

656
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,560
Speaker 1: throwing numbers and this percentage of this and this makes

657
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 1: up that percentage of that. You know, you you some

658
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 1: you sometimes have to check yourself and remind yourself as

659
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: like yo, like these are people, like each one of

660
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 1: these numbers is an actual life, an actual person with

661
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:21,840
Speaker 1: a personality and hopes and speed, fears and dreams and

662
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,759
Speaker 1: aspirations and all that ship, So you have to take

663
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:26,759
Speaker 1: all of that into account. I feel like that's what

664
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: the song does really well. Um it's one of those

665
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 1: things where someone who's listening to it and they start

666
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 1: picking up on what it's about, perhaps they're going through

667
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:40,320
Speaker 1: their life kind of having that same sort of attitude.

668
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 1: I mean, nobody's nobody's perfect, so everybody is guilty of

669
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 1: you know, I guess falling into that mind frame at

670
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: some point in time and then they get into this part.

671
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,759
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting as well about you know,

672
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:54,360
Speaker 1: Mr Windell has freedom, a free that you think that

673
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 1: you and I think it's dumb, like, um, there are

674
00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 1: people who want to live outside. I haven't really read

675
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 1: a lot about this, I call of the of it.

676
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 1: I mean, perhaps it is a side effective capitalism. People

677
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,759
Speaker 1: kind of give up and you know, no longer seek

678
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 1: out employment or housing because they are so beaten down

679
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:13,400
Speaker 1: by the way our system works. But also, I mean

680
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:16,080
Speaker 1: there's some people who just a shoe societal norms of

681
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: like why I gotta you know, work a job and

682
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: live in a house and pay rent, pay a mortgage

683
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah blah blah and kind of given

684
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,279
Speaker 1: and thinking about how our PAPA policy can create space

685
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:28,440
Speaker 1: for those folks. I think it's an interesting discussion to have.

686
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 1: Recently on the Commission, we've been talking about hostile architecture

687
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: that's like the arm rest the middle of the bench

688
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,600
Speaker 1: that keep people from laying down, or like the spikes

689
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 1: outside of a fucking like boutique shop that keep a

690
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 1: homeless person from reclining. Um and then under their awning

691
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 1: to keep out of the rain, Boulder is placed under

692
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: underpasses that we've seen happened recently in Atlanta to prevent

693
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,800
Speaker 1: all those people from campaign there, Like how do we

694
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 1: like make our public spaces actually public in a way

695
00:39:56,840 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 1: that values human life over property. You know, a lot

696
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 1: of times the apostile architecture is installed to protect business owners,

697
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 1: to create a better aesthetic in spaces um Or. You know,

698
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: there's also the logic of just like oh, well they

699
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 1: can do crime, just not here. And so it's constant

700
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:18,439
Speaker 1: shuttling along with people that that that that don't play

701
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: the game that you know, I just want to be

702
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: chilling on a park bench, you know, drinking and forty

703
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:25,560
Speaker 1: in the middle of a day, and that's like what

704
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:29,320
Speaker 1: they want to do. Um And so in addition to

705
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:32,400
Speaker 1: like solving homelessness, also thinking about like how do we

706
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:34,839
Speaker 1: create more space for people who want to live alternatively

707
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:40,520
Speaker 1: um This particular line in particular kind of reminds me

708
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:45,280
Speaker 1: of another thing about this song um or his approach.

709
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 1: Their approach to this topic that differs from modern hip

710
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 1: hop is the explicit messaging of like anti materialism that's

711
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 1: behind this song that's something that ill is almost kind

712
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 1: of completely absent from mainstream hip hop. I mean, this

713
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: is a very popular album in a very popular song,

714
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:09,400
Speaker 1: So at the time that this song came out, it

715
00:41:09,480 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: was kind of like a you know, it was like

716
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: a mainstream song more or less, and to have that

717
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:18,399
Speaker 1: sort of message of you know, there's more to life

718
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 1: than the things that we acquire, the material things that

719
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 1: we acquire. Stylistically, I would say the song is very

720
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:31,239
Speaker 1: laid back and melodic. It's just a pretty song. You know,

721
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:35,680
Speaker 1: It's just a very pleasant song to listen to. And

722
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 1: you could for for tracks like this, you could take

723
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,239
Speaker 1: the approach of a this is a very solemn and

724
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 1: serious topic that we're dealing with, and perhaps you can

725
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:52,320
Speaker 1: make your point in a or get the point across

726
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:56,200
Speaker 1: in a certain way. Doing that, but making for all

727
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 1: tents and purposes a pop song about that subject matter

728
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: definitely makes it have a wider reach. And I think

729
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:08,319
Speaker 1: that speech everybody in arrest of development. You know, they

730
00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: I would imagine they already do, but they can like

731
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:17,360
Speaker 1: sleep really well at night. Knowing that this song probably

732
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: changed or influenced millions of people's attitude towards homeless people

733
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,719
Speaker 1: in America and just homeless people in general, and uh,

734
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: you know, second second guessing how they interact with them

735
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:36,280
Speaker 1: or what they do or don't do to help. Okay,

736
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: now our last song for the day kind how much

737
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 1: of all the costs there we walked out to guess?

738
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,759
Speaker 1: They should know homeless man with the second team complexion

739
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 1: X and what team page stressing about trying He describes

740
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:52,600
Speaker 1: He's like sitting in this luxury car. Uh, man, you

741
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:56,560
Speaker 1: know these pumping gas man comes up and ask um

742
00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:00,480
Speaker 1: if he can you know, len some money. I think

743
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:04,200
Speaker 1: this is set in like an African country. Um, there's

744
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 1: just like a couple of references. Um. He talks about

745
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 1: ten rand, which is the South African currency in this case,

746
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 1: is ten of those are equivalent to one dollar um.

747
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,800
Speaker 1: And the way that he stresses the phrase in the

748
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,600
Speaker 1: lyrics sounds similar to ten grand, which kind of creates

749
00:43:22,680 --> 00:43:25,320
Speaker 1: this like double entender or something like that, where like

750
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 1: he's implying the homeless man is asking for too much.

751
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:31,279
Speaker 1: So again then contrast to the Mr Wendell song like

752
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:35,120
Speaker 1: you know a dollars too much versus two dollars could

753
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 1: change your life? Um, even in reality Kendrick admits that

754
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,359
Speaker 1: he's got enough money to pay the guy whatever he wants,

755
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:45,960
Speaker 1: even though you know he goes want to talk about um.

756
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:49,359
Speaker 1: Oh man, this guy just wants crack. I told him

757
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,719
Speaker 1: to beat it, and I want to contribute money, yes

758
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:56,320
Speaker 1: for his pipe um, which is like, I mean, like

759
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 1: a common common refrain. I think we hear in discussions

760
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 1: of homelessness like oh, I don't want to give us

761
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:04,560
Speaker 1: people money because they're just gonna spend it on drugs, etcetera.

762
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 1: I honestly don't care if somebody spends money on if

763
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,839
Speaker 1: they're homeless, Like you know, if you guys smoke crack

764
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:11,839
Speaker 1: because you live in outside and it's the only way

765
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:13,480
Speaker 1: to make your day better. You know you do you.

766
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:20,040
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna like like playing people shop on Amazon.

767
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:24,239
Speaker 1: God knows what drugs shop on Amazon. God knows what

768
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 1: drugs Jeff Bezos can afford to buy, and like we

769
00:44:26,719 --> 00:44:29,919
Speaker 1: don't question, oh, he earned he's allowed to do drugs legally,

770
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:31,839
Speaker 1: and we're allowed to give us give him our money

771
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,760
Speaker 1: for that. You know, a homeless person wants two dollars

772
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:41,720
Speaker 1: go buy some crack like they ain't really they fault

773
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 1: like I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I would rather them not

774
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:46,879
Speaker 1: be in a position and I gotta ask money for drugs.

775
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:48,840
Speaker 1: I would love for them to get help with that situation.

776
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:51,359
Speaker 1: But you know, in that moment, we just gotta see

777
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:54,040
Speaker 1: people from people and see what they're what, you know,

778
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:56,200
Speaker 1: and just like not judge what they need to do

779
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 1: in order to like be okay in a moment. And

780
00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:01,799
Speaker 1: I think it's in the second verse he gets into

781
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:05,680
Speaker 1: an interesting the anecdote goes on and he says, like

782
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 1: the guy's getting mad at him, um, like like I

783
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 1: was supposed to save him, Like I'm the reason he's

784
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:17,680
Speaker 1: homeless and ask me for a favor. Um, you know,

785
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,319
Speaker 1: like this guy is getting upset that like Kendrick won't

786
00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:22,799
Speaker 1: give him a dollar. And I think this, I mean,

787
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: this is a common experience I've had when like I've

788
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 1: had homeless people, you know mcnos. A lot of homeless

789
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: als come to our house asked for money because they

790
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:33,239
Speaker 1: know I live here. And I've got people who are

791
00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:34,480
Speaker 1: got upset at me, Like what do you mean you

792
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 1: can go to the A T M right now. And

793
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: I think understanding the emotional precarity that comes with just

794
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:44,759
Speaker 1: like living so ruggedly like, sure, I don't appreciate when

795
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:47,560
Speaker 1: somebody like demands and assumed I should do something for them.

796
00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 1: But if you're like living on the edge like that,

797
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: you're about to snap any second. Think about it, thinking

798
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,920
Speaker 1: about the you know, the the thin ice you skate

799
00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:00,319
Speaker 1: on emotionally every day, walking for miles and the sun

800
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:03,360
Speaker 1: or the cold, with clothes that are dirty and you

801
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:07,200
Speaker 1: haven't eaten. Um. And I don't know if people always

802
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:12,680
Speaker 1: like think of that background when in interactions with folks

803
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:17,359
Speaker 1: living outdoors, um, when those interactions become heated. And then

804
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,800
Speaker 1: then the third verse, Kidrick gets into like myself, it

805
00:46:19,840 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 1: is just is what got me here? Who the funking

806
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,880
Speaker 1: my kid in? Like, there is this like the fact

807
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:27,839
Speaker 1: that someone like can can have so much wealth. It's

808
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:31,000
Speaker 1: predicated on the fact that some folks like this man

809
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 1: who's talking about interacting with have nothing, like you know,

810
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: the massive mass accumulation of wealth requires exploitation of people.

811
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: You know, it required in order for you to have

812
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: the nice house in the formerly working class era. That

813
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:48,360
Speaker 1: means that somebody has gotten move to oth or blame

814
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 1: in the trailer or a blim in the family and

815
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 1: Senna stay hotel and that kid, because he's grown up

816
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:58,520
Speaker 1: with housing insecurity, ends up homeless himself, like um, these things.

817
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 1: I think. I think it's interesting how in this um

818
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: song he's like touching on the sense of like like responsible,

819
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 1: the responsibility we all carry for like a pulling the

820
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 1: system that exploits spokes holds folks down such that, you know,

821
00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:16,800
Speaker 1: such that we can accumulate wealth. But it doesn't like

822
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:18,320
Speaker 1: it doesn't like all the way to go. There just

823
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:20,640
Speaker 1: kind of like thinks about it a little bit and

824
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: then I guess it strives off in this car. Yeah,

825
00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:27,360
Speaker 1: it's it's such a good song. I'm pretty sure that

826
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:30,680
Speaker 1: we talked about this track on another episode but in

827
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 1: a different context. But you know, my my two cents

828
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 1: about the song is I love the cinematic nature of

829
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:41,920
Speaker 1: this song and how everything about it musically serves the

830
00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:47,000
Speaker 1: narrative that Kendrick is painting. It's brilliant stuff. Well, all right,

831
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 1: I think you should spit some bars. I don't want

832
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:59,759
Speaker 1: to hear Joel started beat. For sure, one might do

833
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:02,440
Speaker 1: the virus or parish in the florest fire from the

834
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:05,720
Speaker 1: stter climate or expired and they handle bullets with nipple.

835
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:07,799
Speaker 1: Me over with driving forward, wait and try and force

836
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:09,920
Speaker 1: the work on vironment and even count the ways to

837
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:13,000
Speaker 1: kick the bucket the system stuck in eight when whenever

838
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 1: we try to bucket the best case in there we

839
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 1: you know, we end up bloody knuckles. In the worst

840
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:19,680
Speaker 1: case we end in a heart tap. Remember what the

841
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:22,120
Speaker 1: structure come were birthfact, it never lived in the world

842
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:24,360
Speaker 1: that we worked into a nurse. But keep basing, just

843
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:26,759
Speaker 1: worked it and they gotta put me in the dirt

844
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:28,840
Speaker 1: that I said that it's a fair trade to building

845
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:34,600
Speaker 1: the first step of the staircase for that sit for

846
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:38,480
Speaker 1: this week, I'm Lingua franca and I'm dope knife. You're

847
00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 1: waiting on the reparations see next time. Waiting on Reparations

848
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,920
Speaker 1: as a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting

849
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: on Reparations on the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

850
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:51,880
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.